After adjusting the city’s paid parking rates neighborhood by neighborhood across town (and decreasing rates in Uptown), the Seattle Department of Transportation wants to hear what you have to say about the city’s on-street paid parking system. SDOT is conducting an online survey about paid parking, as part of a project to make paid parking more available downtown and in certain neighborhoods.
You can find the survey here (I just did it, and it took less than 10 minutes).
By the way, SDOT has a parking map that lists every paid, permit, carpool, time limited, no parking and unrestricted zone, as well as parking garages and lots. You can zoom in by address, intersection, major landmark, or neighborhood.
Seattle Public Schools is asking for community-input on their Strategic Plan. They have put together a 21-question survey which will close next Tuesday, May 31. “As we are in the mid-point of our 5-year Strategic Plan, Excellence for All, it is a good time to look at our progress and evaluate whether any adjustments are needed going forward,” the top of the survey states. All responses will remain confidential and anonymous. You can take the survey here.
The Seattle Mayor’s office and the University of Washington reached out again last week to ask neighborhood residents to participate in a new neighborhood survey on crime, put together by grad students at the prestigious Evans School of Public Affairs at the university.
The online survey “will help determine residents’ primary public safety concerns in their own neighborhoods and on public transportation.”
With this survey, the City hopes to have a snapshot of perceptions of the police and public safety at a neighborhood-by-neighborhood level. The survey also gives residents an opportunity to anonymously offer their opinions on the police and public safety in Seattle — a new option for this kind of survey.
The new survey asks residents their opinion of public safety conditions in Seattle’s urban villages, if there are any urban villages they avoid, and why.
You’ll have choices like these on crime:
Very serious problem
Serious problem
Minor problem
Not a problem
Question No. 9 asks you to name the most serious crime problems in your neighborhood. There’s a list of 20 choices – including “no crime” and “other.” You get to pick no more than five.
There are 47 questions – possibly more if you ride transit often – including ones dealing with police harassment and effectiveness. You can take the survey- it takes about a quarter-hour – here. The Evans School will release the results to the mayor’s Youth and Family Initiative in May.
The online survey “will help determine residents’ primary public safety concerns in their own neighborhoods and on public transportation.”
With this survey, the City hopes to have a snapshot of perceptions of the police and public safety at a neighborhood-by-neighborhood level. The survey also gives residents an opportunity to anonymously offer their opinions on the police and public safety in Seattle — a new option for this kind of survey.
The new survey asks residents their opinion of public safety conditions in Seattle’s urban villages, if there are any urban villages they avoid, and why.
At all events, you’ll have choices like these on crime:
Very serious problem
Serious problem
Minor problem
Not a problem
Question No. 9 asks you to name the most serious crime problems in your neighborhood. There’s a list of 20 choices – including “no crime” and “other.” You get to pick no more than five.
There are 47 questions – possibly more if you ride transit often – including ones dealing with police harassment and effectiveness. You can take the 10-minute survey here. The Evans School will release the results to the mayor’s Youth and Family Initiative in May.
Do you have public safety concerns specific to Queen Anne? In addition to sharing your thoughts on the survey, please leave a comment here.
King County’s Aging and Disability Services (ADS) wants community input for its new Area Plan on Aging, which will guide its work from 2012-2015.
ADS is a division of the Seattle Human Services Department, and works with King County and United Way to improve the health and quality of life for seniors and adults with disabilities, connect them with resources, and provide support to caregivers.
We especially encourage people who are age 60 or older, adults with disabilities, and family caregivers to respond.
Responses from this questionnaire will inform development of strategies to promote quality of life, independence and choice for older people and adults with disabilities, which will be carried out over the next four years.
Everybody is aging, so everybody should care.
For more information about the Area Plan on Aging, contact ADS planner Karen Winston at 206-684-0706.
Right now parents who have children in full-day kindergarten are charged $207 each month of the school year. With an estimated $35 million budget gap for next year, Seattle Public Schools wants to know what you think about raising that rate to $310.
Although SPS will continue to accept survey responses through Friday, those filled out by Wednesday at 3 p.m. will be reviewed by the School Board during their work session that evening.
From SPS:
The state of Washington funds only half-day kindergarten (there are a few exceptions to this for high poverty schools). For many years our district has added funding for a further half day to ensure there would be one full day kindergarten available in every school. Over the years schools added “pay for K” programs as more and more families wanted full day K for their children. For the 2010-11 school year, we implemented a standard $207 per month Pay for K program across the district. Students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch receive tuition waivers.
With the severe budget crisis, we are considering various options to balance the budget and one is related to Kindergarten services. We want your feedback about these options. Thank you.
One of the major roles of the initiative is to measure the happiness of Seattle’s residents using something called the Gross National Happiness Index (GNH), a model developed in Bhutan, and now employed in Brazil and Canada. The GNH is measured using surveys and objective indicators. Sustainable Seattle is asking community members to help the organization gather data by participating in an online survey that will attempt to measure happiness using the nine domains of happiness determined by researches worldwide and used in the index—psychological well-being, health, time balance, community vitality, education, cultural vitality, environmental quality, governance and material well-being.
“You get what you measure,” Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien said in a statement released yesterday. “For too long we’ve measured the wrong things—Gross Domestic Product doesn’t tell us whether we have a good quality of life or a sustainable society. This survey, which includes nine domains of well-being, not just income, is a good way to start measuring the important things we care about, so we can actually achieve them.”
“We’re thrilled to take the lead in this exciting project,” Sustainable Seattle’s Executive Director Laura Musikanski said in a statement. “This year, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of our regional indicator work, which from the beginning was a model for the entire world. By adding subjective indicators of well-being to the many important objective indicators we have identified over the years, we can provide a truly powerful look at how well we are doing in all areas of life. We hope the survey leads to positive action for greater happiness, social justice, and both economic and environmental health.”
All participants who complete the survey will receive an instant well-being score for each of the nine domains, and will be able to compare results with other who have taken the survey. From the website:
You will find that the 135 questions in this survey will encourage you to think about your life in new ways and about what you can do to be happier.
The survey takes an estimated 20 to 30 minutes to complete, and it cannot be stopped and started over later, so participants are advised to take the survey when they have the time to finish it all the way through.
“It takes a while to complete because it’s comprehensive,” John de Graaf, executive eirector of Take Back Your Time said. “But you’ll find it’s worth the time because it really makes you think about your life and how to improve it. It’s part of an exciting new effort to add quality of life and sustainability to our assessments of progress. It’s being used in many countries now, but this is the first opportunity for Americans to take the survey. The results will be useful to individuals, organizations and policy makers who want to base their efforts to increase well-being on solid science and comprehensive information.”
As for privacy, Sustainable Seattle says no personal data will be released publicly.
Overall data from this survey will be analyzed and provided to media but your individual data will not be revealed to others. We ask for demographic data so we can analyze overall results, but we do not ask for your name, address, etc. Your privacy will be protected.
We follow the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC (European Union): Personal data collected for this survey is used only for the purposes of the project and as a part of an aggregate. All data is kept secure and individual responses are not shared.
Want to hear more about the project? Take Back Your Time’s John de Graaf was on KUOW’s Conversation with Ross Reynolds on Friday. Listen to that story here.
If you’re one of our readers, chances are you’re fairly adept at getting around the Internet, and have at least probably dabbled in finding information through government web sites, especially Seattle.gov.
Knowledge as Power (KAP), a non-profit based in Seattle with a primary objective to empower politically engaged citizens, is running a Usability Study on Seattle.gov that wants to see how easy (or hard) that site is for people to navigate and to find the information they need/want. And they’ll give you $20 in Tippr credit.
KAP founder and executive director Sarah Schacht explains on her blog:
When I was approached by the Mayor’s office in March for ideas on open gov work that could be implemented across Seattle’s services, the first thing I pointed out was that our city, like many others, doesn’t really know what residents want from their government in terms of openness and online services. It would be important to do a usability study, and use the results to guide future redesigns’ prioritization. Problem was, there’s no money for that kind of work, especially in governments that are slashing staff and announcing doomsday budgets. So, I put my bargain-hunting to work, again, to help fuel the usability study.
So for less than $250 in KAP funds, this study will give Seattle’s Department of Information Technology (DoIT) and Mayor McGinn’s office a roadmap for improving Seattle.gov, based on the feedback of about 50 Seattle residents who will sit down for an hour (if you’re chosen after doing a short online survey). Let KAP tell you more:
Essentially we are looking for participants like you to sit in a room and let us takes notes as you browse for information on Seattle.gov. It’s as easy as that, and in return we will give you $20 in Tippr credit. (Tippr.com is a local Seattle company similar to Groupon, LivingSocial, etc. Your $20 credit gets you $40-$60 worth of Seattle goods.)
Right now we are looking for two specific groups of people:
1) People who use or have used Seattle.gov for a business purpose (e.g. perhaps you’re a startup and you have to use the website to find and apply for permits) and
2) Ordinary Citzens! We’re looking for people of every level computer competency to come in and test the website.
Come help your city — or at least its web site — work better. Fill out the short application page here.
The proposed changes to Nickerson Street will be on the agenda when the Seattle City Council Transportation Committee meets on Tuesday (6/8) at 9:30a.m. in council chambers. Expect both sides in what has become a passionate debate to make their voices heard at the hearing.
The Cascade Bicycle Club favors the plan and is urging members to attend the hearing. The group also started a ‘Tums for Tom’ campaign, encouraging people to send Tums antacid to Seattle Council Transportation Chair Tom Rasmussen after he questioned the Nickerson plan and the headline in the Seattle Times said Nickerson “road diet” gives Councilman Rasmussen indigestion.
The MagnoliaVoice/QueenAnneView survey on the Nickerson Street plan is still open and we will report results on Monday morning. So far over 600 people have already taken the survey. We also plan to share the survey with the Transportation Committee at the hearing. Click here to take the survey and tell us what you think.
With so much debate over the proposed changes to Nickerson Street, we thought we should provide a survey for our readers. As we have been reporting, the plan to put Nickerson street on a ‘road diet’ has generated passionate comments. Community groups have formed to oppose and support the change.
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) announced that this summer Nickerson Street will change to include one driving lane in each direction and a center two-way turn lane. The new configuration will reduce the number of car lanes and add an uphill bicycle lane. The downhill traffic lane will have shared lane markings for bicycles. There will be marked crosswalks installed at Jesse Avenue West, Cremona Street, and Dravus Street.
Click hereto take the survey and tell us what you think. Please only vote once. We know that this survey is not scientific but we think it will be interesting to see where people stand on the issue. We will keep you posted on results.
You’re probably asked to take surveys all the time, but please consider taking a few minutes to respond to one of our community’s greatest assets – the public library. The Seattle Public Library wants to hear from you, so please share your thoughts and ideas about services and priorities and help inform strategic planning efforts to plan the Library’s future.
The Library’s survey is available through Sunday, May 16. Visit the Library’s website to access the survey online or visit your local branch to complete a paper copy. The survey will also be available in Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Russian languages. Survey responses will help guide the Library’s future growth and services.
If you feel more comfortable talking out your thoughts, the Library will present a panel discussion titled “Technology and Its Impact on the Future of Libraries” at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 8, at the Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., Level 4, Room 1.
The Library launched its strategic planning effort in early March with five Citywide Conversations designed to encourage people to “think big” about future Library services and the Library’s role in the community. The project, using the theme, “My Library: The Next Generation,” is made possible by a grant from The Seattle Public Library Foundation.
Visit the website and select “Strategic Planning” from the Quick Links section for more information. You can also send e-mail to strategicplan@spl.org or contact Eve Sternberg, project lead, at 206-386-1119.
FOLKpark has been working to redesign and revitalize Queen Anne’s Lower Kinnear Park with the support of a $15,000 Department of Neighborhoods grant and many community volunteers who have dedicated weekends to cleaning up the park.
Over the past few months the organization has enlisted the help of HBB Landscape Architecture to develop four concept designs for the enhancement of the park, built from community feedback at a series of public meetings. In order to finance Phase II of the project–design development and construction drawings–the group is applying for Department of Neighborhoods Large Project Fund, and is asking for community support in winning it. In an email sent out last week FOLKpark Volunteer Coordinator Phil Prahst wrote,
FOLKpark is applying for funding through the City’s Department of Neighborhoods Large and Simple Fund to take the conceptual design for Lower Kinnear Park into the next phase of design development and construction drawings.
Part of the application asks that we list individuals by name, address, phone and email that are willing to volunteer time or donate money to the project during the time frame of this grant, which is August, 2010 through January, 2011. I know we have asked you before, but we need your permission to use your name, etc.
FOLKpark is asking those planning on volunteering time or making a donation in the next year to fill out this short survey, which will be provided to the Department of Neighborhoods for grant consideration. For more information visit folkpark.org.
On Thursday, April 8, FOLKpark will be presenting the final conceptual plan for Lower Kinnear Park to the community at a public meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Bayview Retirement Community, located at 11 W. Aloha St.
And on Sunday, April 24 FOLKpark will be leading a clean up in Lower Kinnear Park in honor of Earth Day. Volunteers are invited to come celebrate nature and clean up the park by clearing out invasive (ivy, holly and blackberries) from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. The Department of Park and Recreation will be providing tools.
If you missed the FOLKpark meeting a couple of weeks ago, but would like to share your opinions for the enhancement of Lower Kinnear Park, there’s still time to tell the planning committee what you think. Just take FOLKpark’s short improvement survey (it’s only seven questions, so it won’t take long). And if you missed the meeting, you can read up on the topics discussed, or watch the video for a quick overview.
The next FOLKpark meeting be on Thursday, February 25 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Bayview Retirement Community, located at 11 W. Aloha St, when the landscape architects will present a draft plan for the park to the community.
After a surge of last-minute participants, the city has extended the deadline to take the neighborhood plan survey by a week and a half.
Since yesterday the number of Queen Anne residents who have filled out the survey has gone from 22 to 62, a good increase considering today was initially the last day the questionnaire was to be available for residents to take online. The Seattle Planning Commission has extended the final deadline until next Friday, August 21. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to take the survey yet, you can do so by clicking here.
In the last 24 hours Ballard participation has jumped from 200 to 476. Queen Anne has nine days to catch up!
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Seattle Public Schools is asking for community-input on their Strategic Plan. They have put together a 21-question survey which will close next Tuesday, May 31. “As we are in the mid-point of our 5-year Strategic Plan, Excellence for All, it is a good time to look at our progress and evaluate whether any adjustments are needed going forward,” the top of the survey states. All responses will remain confidential and anonymous. You can 
How happy are Seattle-ites? Is personal happiness something that can even be measured?
